Jazz

An outstanding archive of souvenir photographs ephemera scrapbooks and daily diaries chronicling the fortunes of a popular Jazz Band musician and Big Band Leader in the Pacific Northwest and California during the Roaring 20’s. Lewis directed and played for the house bands of the Congress Hotel Multnomah Hotel McElroy’s Spanish Ballroom orchestra leader at the Coronado Beach Hotel in California Portland Night Club Garden Dancing Palace in Spokane WA and the famed Bungalow Club in Seaside OR.

1920 · réf. 62329 — Portland OR Spokane WA San Francisco CA & Seaside OR: Lyle E. Lewis Dance Orchestra ca. 1920-1944. Eight vols. 1st - 4to. 48 pp unpaginated. on thick black paper w/ 100’s of pieces of ephemera mounted and laid-in including 7 silver gelatin photographs sized from 5 x 7 in. up to 8 x 10 in. many different TLS and ALS most on stationery letterhead for assorted hotels KGW Radio and others many newspaper clippings tickets promotional brochures advertising cards dance tickets along with a spoof printed “Wanted” notice for Ted Mullen alias Sourdough Sullen with $ 500 million reward offered and large double-page advertising broadside on yellow-gold tinged thick paper stock at rear for gig in Astoria OR under the auspices of the Co. L 186th Infantry Oregon National Guard. Contemporary pebbled black boards punch-sewn at gutter margin chipping edgewear still VG- exemplar; 2nd - 4to. 92 pp unpaginated w/ majority of leaves on ruled paper including 18 leaves of mylar sleeves featuring the majority of the 23 silver gelatin photographs most sized 8 x 10 in. photographer’s imprints on versos remainder w/ clippings promotional announcements tickets broadsides ALS & TLS documents throughout along with a long radio program script. Contemporary 2-ring blue cloth binder rounded corners some edgewear rubbing still VG; 3rd-7th - 16mo. Five daily diaries Approx. 700 pp unpaginated. w/ approx. 4000 words manuscript annotations in ink & pencil throughout featuring some laid-in miniature photos receipts business cards including 1 photographic souvenir business card for Cole McElroy’s Dance Band and Cole McElroy’s Spanish Ballroom 1 tiny postage stamp photo of Lewis at his bungalow in Seaside all bound in cloth some wear still VG grouping; 8th - 12mo. Approx. 150 pp unpaginated. of ruled paper mostly typescript ink & pencil manuscript some ruling throughout annotations & checkmarks last 4th or so blank. Flexible black cloth 6-ring binder business card for Lewis as Commercial Agent for ACME Fast Freight taped in on front pastedown 3 blank routing order forms in red & black some scuffing edgewear still VG all from the library of Genevieve Martha Lewis Levin 1911-1994. This unusually well-preserved archive of a Roaring 20’s Jazz Orchestra musician and Band Leader in the Pacific Northwest reveals the exuberance and business success of this largely forgotten artist through his successful years before foundering during the Great Depression. Both scrapbooks open with clippings thank you and recommendation letters as well as dance broadsides and photographs during 1926 at the height of Lyle Lewis’s orchestra appreciation. Testimonials include B.J. Saad who owned the Garden Dancing Palace and stated “I have taken the Garden which is second to no other ballroom west of Chicago. That is why I have secured Lyle Lewis recognized as one of the best orchestra leaders on the Coast.” C.W. Craig of Lipman Wolfe & Co. department store extolls that Jazz music dance held at the Multnomah Hotel March 16 1926 that “I don’t think we have ever enjoyed better or more up to date dance music than that furnished by your splendid aggregation.” Broadsides and notices advertise the Lewis Jazz Orchestra playing the Grand Ball Room at the Masonic Temple Congress Hotel leading McElroy’s Oregonians at the McElroy’s Spanish Ballroom the Dessert Hotel Oasis near Spokane parties for Studebaker and more. One of the mounted letters includes a rather sad severance letter signed by Cole McElroy explaining the circumstances of Lyle Lewis’s leaving stating “I realise that you were a victim of circumstances. On account of the fact that you had a fine band organized. . . certain music masters of the theatre jobs saw fit to take your men away from you thereby breaking up your fine band and forcing me to make a deal for another organization.” McElroy 1888-1947 was known as “Pop” McElroy was a popular band leader who during the years before World War I and after played the Palm Gardens often and had great success in his McElroy Spanish Ballroom which opened in 1926 and then opened another Seattle McElroy Ballroom in 1928. Several TLS on letterheads include those for KXL Radio station KGW Radio Station and the KOIN Studio Director for The Portland News which played three nights a week on air for over six months. The many photographs capture the Lyle Lewis band joking around with their instruments on the road fully arrayed on stage in the Radio Station posing at various venues stages and even one as late as 1939 conducting the Lyle E. Lewis Dance Orchestra. The band included Cluet Mansfield formerly with Henry Halsted band William Webber on drums Eddie Scroggins & Frank Champion as sax players G. Berardinelli on Bass and also played dances at the Irvington Club Multnomah Athletic Club and for a while with the historic Congress Hotel in Portland which had been the City’s first reinforced concrete building erected during the Progressive Era and by 1924 expanded to 119 rooms with vibrant Jazz ballroom. The daily diaries for 1929 and 1930 show that Lewis regularly played at the Cotillion Hall now the Crystal Ballroom initially at $ 7.00 per night in 1929 and then steadily dropping to less than half by 1933. He writes about traveling for a gig in San Francisco with Mansfield in 1929 leaving Tuesday and arriving Wednesday Sept. 18 1929 driving 40 mph and getting 19 miles to the gallon with a drive made in 19 hours and 15 minutes. He played extensively at the Bungalow Club in Seaside OR which had opened originally June 19 1920 and for more than 25 years was the destination for the biggest names in the Big Band Jazz era including Lyle E. Lewis Cole McElroy Duke Ellington Bob Crosby Glenn Miller and tragically became connected with the death of Jimmie Lunceford who died from a heart attack just before playing his last set at the Bungalow after playing McElroy’s Ballroom in Portland 2 nights before. Lewis 1890-1948 was a popular Portland Oregon based jazz band & orchestra leader who managed to lie about his age and enlist at 15 in the Oregon National Guard Co. G 3rd Battalion served for three years and in May 1910 married Genevieve Franklin while working as salesman and musician before World War I Following the War he quickly became a successful band leader including successful stints with the Cole McElroy Spanish Ballroom Congress Hotel Multnomah Hotel Bungalow Garden Ballroom as well as the Coronado Hotel in California. As indicated by the daily diaries he maintained a fairly close relationship with his daughter Genevieve “Martha” but became largely estranged from his wife Genevieve living in separate rooming houses or hotels. Still in her position as a sales manager she managed to convince Meier & Frank to hire him as their house band for store functions and the restaurant while during the Great Depression he mostly worked for the US Forest Service mapping division while his show business largely disappeared. By 1943 he became the commercial agent for ACME Fast Freight where he worked as commercial agent until his death. This cataloguer could find no surviving recorded discography record for Lyle E. Lewis and his assorted incarnations although there are a few recordings for the Cole McElroy Band from 1926-1928 which most likely would have included him as band leader and musician. Lyle E. Lewis, Dance Orchestra, hardcover